Liu Haizhong wasn't stupid. He knew that given his family's current situation, they absolutely couldn't do without Liu Guangtian and his brother. If the two of them left, the Liu family's future would be even worse.
If he had known this would happen, he shouldn't have hit him. In order to keep Liu Guangtian and his brother, Liu Haizhong had no choice but to bow down to them, even though he was extremely unwilling.
They followed Liu Guangqi to their room. Liu Haizhong, unusually, took the initiative to back down.
“Guangtian, I went a bit too far today. Don’t worry, I won’t hit you for no reason next time. No matter what, we are father and son. It’s not good for you to move out; it’s bad for both our reputations.”
Liu Haizhong had assumed that Liu Guangtian would be grateful for what he had said. But after Liu Haizhong finished speaking, Liu Guangtian didn't react at all and remained sitting on the bed without saying a word.
This instantly turned his already volatile bangs into a powder keg. He slammed his hand hard on the table.
"You unfilial son, I've already given in to you, what more do you want? There are no bad parents in the world, only children who have made mistakes. Now that I've given in to you, do you expect me to lower myself and apologize to you?"
Upon hearing Liu Haizhong's words, Liu Guangtian laughed, but the laugh was somewhat tragic.
"There are no bad parents, only bad children, right? If I had a choice, I would never want to be your child. Tell me, what did Guangfu and I do wrong? Why have you abused us since we were little?"
"If I had a choice, I would rather my parents had died long ago. If my parents had died, I wouldn't have had to be abused from childhood to adulthood. Do you know what kind of people my parents are in my memory? They were simply beasts, even worse than beasts."
“Countless times in my dreams, I’ve taken a knife and killed them. Because all they left me with was endless sorrow. And now they’re telling me you’re my father? Having a father like that is worse than having no father at all.”
"Now that things have been laid bare, let's sever all ties from this day forward. You go your way, and I'll go mine."
"You only remember us as your sons now because we have jobs. The only reason we didn't leave before was because we couldn't support ourselves. If we could support ourselves, we would never have stayed in this house to suffer your abuse."
After speaking, Liu Guangtian took off his clothes, revealing a body covered in scars. Even part of his chest was sunken in.
"Look at all these injuries I have, all from you, especially my chest. Look closely, seven years have passed, but my ribs are still broken. Luckily, the ribs didn't pierce my internal organs, or I would have died long ago."
“Look at my arm again. This was also caused by you. I was only 13 years old at the time. Guangfu took me outside to find some herbs to apply myself. If we had found the wrong herbs, my arm would have been ruined long ago.”
Seeing all this, Liu Haizhong kept trying to recall when the fight had taken place. This made him look at Gu Chunyan.
Gu Chunyan didn't know when Liu Haizhong had made the call, so she could only shake her head at him.
"Guangtian, why didn't you tell us you were injured? If you had told me, why wouldn't I have taken you to see a doctor? I knew how badly you were injured, how could I have hit you so easily?"
Upon hearing his father's words, Liu Guangfu also took off his clothes.
"Don't you think it's going too far to say such things? Don't you know what kind of injuries your second brother suffered? You may not remember, but I do. Those injuries on your second brother's chest were inflicted by you with a stool after you lost the competition for workshop foreman. He even vomited blood in the kitchen at the time."
“But none of you cared about him. You just left him lying on the ground, vomiting blood. I remember I was only eight or nine years old at the time. I gritted my teeth and dragged him back to the room, otherwise he might have frozen to death.”
“You told me you didn’t know he was injured. I told you several times and even asked you to give me a few dollars to buy medicine for my second brother. But what did you do? Look at how I got this injury. You beat me so badly that my second brother and I were both bedridden for half a month that time.”
"Are you all blind? Two living people have been lying in bed for half a month and you didn't even know. When have you ever cared about us when we were injured? You only care about our eldest brother Liu Guangqi; we two aren't even considered as adopted children."
"If Wei Hua hadn't sold the job to Second Brother cheaply, the two of us would still be the same as before, just your human punching bags, and when you're in a bad mood, you'd beat us up with all sorts of things."
"Can you tell us, brothers, whether we were adopted? Otherwise, why are you treating us like this? Have we done something heinous?"
"Parents like you are worse than no parents at all. If possible, I wish my parents had died long ago. That way, I would at least have some fondness for them, instead of being filled with resentment like I am now."
After finishing his sentence, Liu Guangfu collapsed onto the bed, tears streaming down his face. Seeing his younger brother crying there, Liu Guangtian slowly walked over.
“Don’t cry anymore. This hardship is completely over. We are now capable of supporting ourselves. Tomorrow we will look for a house and cut off all ties with them. If they don’t agree, we will report them to the neighborhood committee. I’ve already asked around. In our situation, we can definitely sever all ties with Liu Haizhong. We might even be able to get Liu Haizhong’s father imprisoned for several years.”
The words of Liu Guangtian and his brother startled Liu Haizhong and his wife. Besides the past events, they were even more afraid of going to jail, so they could only look to their eldest son.
Liu Guangqi was, after all, a vocational school graduate, and he knew a little about the law. If these injuries were indeed inflicted by his father, he would definitely be in jail for a few years. So he nodded to them.
When Liu Haizhong and Gu Chunyan saw their eldest son nod, they panicked. Liu Haizhong, who had initially intended to attack, no longer dared to. The previous year and a half had already taught him a lesson, instilling in him a fear of prison.
Seeing his parents' timid and hesitant demeanor, Liu Guangqi had no choice but to step forward. The Liu family couldn't afford to lose Liu Guangtian and his son.
"Guangtian, no matter what, they are our parents. Even if they did wrong, they still raised us. Without your parents, you wouldn't be where you are today."
"Stop pretending. They're your family. They've given you all the good things since you were little. The two of us have never received any love. Once, we were so greedy that we picked up a piece of egg with our chopsticks, and we ended up getting beaten up with bloody heads."
"The eggs and meat are always for the three of you. We don't even have the right to share a single bite. And now you're telling the two of us that we're a family. Don't you feel ashamed?"
"The reason we're like this is mostly because of you. Only you can make them happy, while we're always the ones who get bullied."
"We don't care about the Liu family's things. We've already made it clear that from now on, we have nothing to do with the Liu family."
After Liu Guangtian finished speaking, he began to pack his things. Even Liu Guangfu, who had been crying, wiped away his tears and followed his second brother to pack his things.
As Liu Guangtian and his brother tidied up their things, everyone in the courtyard watched silently.
This is, after all, a family matter for the Liu family, and the others in the courtyard couldn't say anything. Parents are unkind, and children are unfilial; this is probably what it's like now.
If Liu Haizhong and Gu Chunyan hadn't gone too far, why would Liu Guangtian and Liu Guangfu have left so easily?
After Liu Guangtian and Liu Guangfu tidied up their belongings, they personally wrote a document severing ties with the Qing dynasty and handed it to Liu Haizhong and Gu Chunyan.
“If you get them to sign, we will have no further relationship with them. You can also choose not to sign. If you don’t sign, we will take the documents to the neighborhood committee.”
Hearing Liu Guangtian's words, Liu Haizhong considered for a moment, then took the paper and signed his name. Compared to the two of them leaving, Liu Haizhong was even less willing to go to jail.
After signing the severance document, Liu Haizhong seemed to age several years instantly. The Liu brothers, on the other hand, appeared much more relaxed. Rare smiles appeared on their faces.
If things escalate to the local neighborhood committee, it won't be good for the brothers' reputations. Cutting off all ties now is the best outcome for them.
Fortunately, it was hot, so even if they had nowhere to sleep, they wouldn't catch a cold. To avoid sleeping on the streets, Liu Guangtian immediately took his younger brother and left the courtyard house, heading towards the neighborhood office.
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